They might not sound exactly like their American forefathers, but a new breed of deep house producers are shaking up Europe, writes Ronan Fitzgerald.

Go to full feature: Month to Month - Germany goes deep

Your last column was good, but this one was great. I especially appreciate the lengths you went to support your points, interviewing the people you're talking about. Keep up the good work!

two thumbs up bro, luv the last phrase "perhaps failure is more interesting than success" very clever

Ronan this is a much better read than your first column, I apologize for insulting you. Very unprofessional on my behalf. I read your blog and I would love to read your deeper analysis of music, your essay on "Techno the American Psycho" compare and contrast would make a great article.

Top article mate... Keep up the good work

Thumbs up! Great article.

thanks all.....

yeh definitely - a nicely measured and balanced look at this trend. Well done!

I just think (naively) that maybe people have realised they actually want to dance when they are out at clubs and events. I'm not saying that no-one danced before at 'm*****l' (hating using this word) events but maybe there wasn't a real 'party' atmosphere which at the end of the day is the reason we go out in 'our' spare time no?. DJ's/Producers have maybe caught on to this and are probably aware that listening to 8 hours of repetitive clicks and bleeps arguably doesn't provide great listening or fun to a majority of people, and hence are mixing it up in tempo and style (i.e Ricardo V set will include - Adam Beyer to D'Lacy to Shackleton etc). This might also indicate the rising success of Innervisions etc. Personally I hate labelling music into genres and sub-genres as I just see it as dance music that people will enjoy listening to and that will make them move and smile (person specific!). It's all a very natural progression in dance music. *Did amazingly well to only use the word 'party' once in this post as this word was blinding any words or thoughts I had on the piece*.

Bemused ... There's a sea change in Europe, coming from Europe, and the credit is somehow still attributed to the US?

IMHO the seachange is happening in Europe, but also in the US. Don't forget that techno, deep house and house influences always dropped from a side to another between the 2 continents.
Nowadays we keep naming artists like Omar S, DJ Jus ED, Mike Huckaby, Patrice Scott just to name few, they're deeply influenced by Detroit's original, but they also are cought up by the european house and techno since years. and Today this is getting more rooted! So all what's happening is that US and EU are still exchanging influences, sounds, and musical visions, and they are both going Deeper. (Thank God!)
"For the International DJ only" is the clearest example of them all

hahaha Germany goes deep? jaw dropping!
this is too funny!
first of all, most people still don't know what "minimal" is - was - or ever will be, and if anything, that it has been around since years - Sahko anyone ???? = over 10 years old and that is minimal by the way for all you brainless beings.

uk, in perticular, likes to blow things out of shape and to the point of no return when it comes to trends - in this case the "minimal" word. everything became "minimal" all dj's = minimal, most music (that is not "minimal" AT ALL) = minimal - minimal - minimal - this word makes me want to run to the woods.

thank you Mixmag and DJ Mag! - rubbish!!! cant stress this enough!!
now is time for "new" trend to hop on?
so annoying!
many dj's that has been put in this category waren't even suppose to be there and are not minimal djs!

i don't have to name drop here, you can easily guess yourself's - they are techno and house dj's, i never heard "8 hours of bleeps and bloops" from anyone, always a mixture of things with most that i went to see playing.

by the way, Get Phisical is NOT a MINIMAL label and Mobilee is NOT a trend setter for music in Germany, how about researching just a little when writing on a subject.

germany is not a follower, most seem to be doing their own thing - which by the way, by observation, is and has been related to techno not MINIMAL.

all you big minimal fans and freak of nature - get ready for house music! duhhhhhh!!!!

let me take a wild guess, EVERYTHING will become HOUSE.....AGAIN!? - which i love and loved from day one as much as some of the stripped-down-slow-mellow-bleeps that are being slowly put down, because YOU rinsed it! and now bored ready to move to something else, to rinse later, than come back to it again and rinse it and again..............

one can already hear how quick some can be on the negative about certain labels, when 6 months ago they would die to go to one of their parties or meet one of the dj's - you people are sad!
now all, i mean - 2, of the uk music (rubbish!! i must add AGAIN) magazines will get on the bandwagon, ESPECIALLY when Germany is involved.
how about enjoying whatever YOU like, as a person and not following someone else's opinions ALL the time, especially when it comes to music or art of some sort.

Great article!

I picked up Sydenham's Remix of Argy's 1985 a month or two ago and was blown away by the collaboration.

This trend started happening a while ago, and I'm glad its picking up more. While minimal has lots of strengths, one of its weaknesses is that 70% of the music is soul-less. Hopefully the deeper influences will balance the minimal scene and let it reach its potential.

"As we move in to the new millenium, some people think that the progression of house music has turned into progressive. But we all know that progressive aint progress... and progressive... aint house!! Do You Know House?"

Great article, minimal was always going to be a fad & fade out eventually. Deep house has been around since the begining i like the sound of the two genres merging to create a new sound. Like what were hearing today on liebe detail, Sebo's - "beiruit boogie" a classic example what genre does that fall under!? it has elements of deep house and minimal.If deep house takes over it will just be another band wagon for the trainspotters and "cool club kids" to jump on. Maybe it should stay as it is leave it to the old skool,Chandler,Carl craig, Syndenham, Ferrer.This time next year we will be talking about another genre either from the past or something new, music moves to fast not that its a bad thing only time will tell i suppose.

Excellent article Ronan. Sigh at the boring comments from readers about soullessness etc and the way people think the last five years have been about futurist minimal Hawtin bleeps only. I'd say the shift for a lot of audiences is as much from electro-house and tech-house (from Kompakt to Sender) to deep house, with "minimal" as a kind of vanishing mediator between the two. And the key for me isn't soullessness vs soulfulness, but rather the negotiation between "dry" tracks where you can hear all the different parts interrelating clearly (the archetypal notion of "minimal" tracks) versus "wet" tracks where everything bleeds together into a conglomerate whole ("deep" tracks). Which of course is an endless back & forth process - e.g. Ame's sound today serves the same structural function that, oh, Superpitcher's did back in 2003.

Ronan I'd be interested to read more from you on this issue but focusing more closely on the sonics. I think there are a lot of genuinely odd aspects to a lot of the big deep tracks. Like, Stefan Goldmann's sound, which is very deep house, but has that trippy, chimerical shimmer that you could trace back to minimal (Villalobos via Loco Dice perhaps, but also with the glossy hypersheen of Luomo - and speaking of which doesn't The Present Lover now sound timely again). More generally there's that sense of (positive) revisionism at work whereby, if you tried to reverse engineer the history of deep house from what's currently big, you'd assume that the early entries in Basic Channel's Rounds One to Five series were actually the pivotal tracks for the entire sub-genre.

shub .. we were arguing over Maraget dygas but i can't agree with you more with your comments above .. Especially in regards to Mobilee .. NOT a trend setter in the slightest .. as far as i'm concerned this article is just an intellectual take on the same old topic beaten to death on every forum since the birth of the internet : Is it House or Techno ? .. Ronan has a way with words but it does not hide the fact that he is just another journalist aiming to pigeon hole music ..

I called Mobilee "a magnifying glass". Magnifying glasses, if you recall using one ever, make things that are already there bigger, rather than creating new things. So I didn't actually call the label a "trend setter".

Just a quick clarification, carry on.

Oh and thanks Tim, that wet/dry thing is actually a pretty useful distinction I think, and even describes the production process a little I guess.

As a DJ I often think in those terms when playing, the dry stuff is often quite floorworking and something really wet and melodic is almost like a break towards the end, or something that's less technical to bask in.

Though some artists mix the two really well within tracks, I guess these are sometimes the biggest anthems, that sound sharp and technical but also are laden with melody, eg Audion, Redshape, Ame...

Good work. Interesting article... I just read a suspiciously similar one on Pitchfork Media this morning as well:

LINK

Props to the Finney. Wet v dry is a great distinction, and makes a lot of sense in separating popular minimal with new wave deep house.

Don't care much for the guys up-thread arguing about what's been called minimal. It's a label, a bandwagon, and it made sense, even if the music had minimal characteristics (ie dry) rather than being original minimal or whatever.

interesting vernixx...I can promise you there was no contact between me and philip sherburne during the writing of these articles if that'll allay your suspicion

I was actually suspect of Sherbourne's sources, since he lives in Portland, Ronan!

well to be fair to Phil I think he is on a tour of Europe for the last few months....perhaps making a sort of "techumentary" in the style of the Rolling Stones "Cocksucker Blues".

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Posted by schub
how about enjoying whatever YOU like, as a person and not following someone else's opinions ALL the time, especially when it comes to music or art of some sort.

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It seems you don't like reading other people's opinion's, so what brings you to  and Ronan's column?

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Posted by stevemizek

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Posted by schub
how about enjoying whatever YOU like, as a person and not following someone else's opinions ALL the time, especially when it comes to music or art of some sort.

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It seems you don't like reading other people's opinion's, so what brings you to    and Ronan's column?

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because sometimes i cant help to say what i think, probably just as much as you. and if you read some of the other discussions, you will notice that i'm not the only one with an opinion here, next!

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because sometimes i cant help to say what i think, probably just as much as you. and if you read some of the other discussions, you will notice that i'm not the only one with an opinion here, next!

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No one doubts you have an opinion, you just don't seem to appreciate anyone else's.

Really dug the column, Ronan, and I agree that it's far better argued than your previous one. Can't wait to see what's next in the series.

LeeDave: I don't think Ronan is trying to pigeon-hole music. He's identifying a trend, and attempting to suss out what's behind it, from influences to motivations. Better yet, he actually talked to that artists in question rather than simply dropping his own opinion. It's reportage. Nowhere does he say "X is minimal" or "Y is deep house"; he's noting a perceived shift in certain circles, one that's been commented on all over the place for quite some time. It's simply reportage. I don't understand why people who claim to hate the analysis of music (not necessarily you, LeeDave, but I've heard that comment so often around these parts) choose to hang out on sites that are dedicated to the discussion and analysis of music.

Vernixx: I grew up in Portland, Oregon; lived in San Francisco from '98 til 2005, during which time I traveled frequently and visited plenty of dance-music scenes on three continents. Wait, no, four. In 2005 I moved to Barcelona. The last nine months I was living temporarily in Portland again, taking care of family obligations, continuing to travel, and remaining as immersed in the music as ever. Interestingly enough, I discovered a thriving, if small, electronic dance-music scene when I was in Portland, proof that things happen on the margins as well as the center. In any case, I would hope that people judge me by my writing, not where they think I might live.

No problems Phillip...I always love your column...I wasn't judging you by WHERE you live or lived...I just found it interesting if not a bit strange that both articles were alike. But great minds think alike, right?! And I also wondered if your perspective was from afar.

Keep on keeping on...

thanks vernixx, sorry if i misjudged yr comment. the interesting thing about the convergence between ronan's column and mine, well, i knew he was writing this one from his comments after the last (though no specifics) which is exactly why i stepped back from writing a column specifically about the deep-house move in minimal and went with a more personal, idiosyncratic roundup. (in part because i knew ronan was doing, like, research, which i wasn't!) but the idea has definitely been floating around in plenty of places lately.

anyway, cheers...

Gowan the Romo!

Still, good night in the pub last Saturday.

great read indeed....

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Posted by tfinney
Ame's sound today serves the same structural function that, oh, Superpitcher's did back in 2003.
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I kindly disagree, personally Superpitcher's 'Today' album is unbeatable and the structure is pretty much timeless.

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Brilliantly written, fair play!

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Posted by psherburne
(because i knew ronan was doing, like, research, which i wasn't!)

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I'm a big fan of you both, and this makes me smile. Way to go Ronan!

I thought this was a great read, thank you for an interesting article.

Some points I thought "that's what i've been saying for ages!"

and some I thought "I never knew that!"

Coming from a fan of the deep jackin chicago kinda sound (and I use that as a loose description not a specific sub-sub-sub-genre), I am glad that these very talented producers are looking to add new influences and more upliftiing sounds to their works. As someone mentioned earlier, I think it makes everyone want to dance and smile a lot more than a few clicks and a D minor chord.

And that's what it's about, right?

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Posted by psherburne but the idea has definitely been floating around in plenty of places lately.
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you're right, it has been around in other places lately, isn't it funny the way these 'ideas' for articles float around the internet ether? From May 13th...
testindustries.typepad.com/test/2007/05/going_deep.html

yes Richard you invented the whole thing! jesus christ...

Didn't Richard Brophy play keyboards on 'Can You Feel It' too?

He said to Larry Heard: "don't do it that way, you'll never make it that way".

He was there at the original Can shows?
On the beach in Ibiza back in '87...

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Posted by jeremy_a
Didn't Richard Brophy play keyboards on 'Can You Feel It' too?

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jesus, I wish

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Posted by backlashing
yes Richard you invented the whole thing! jesus christ...

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It's cool, imitation, is the sincerest form of flattery

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Posted by backlashing
He said to Larry Heard: "don't do it that way, you'll never make it that way".

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He really should have listened...

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Posted by rchinn
He was there at the original Can shows?
On the beach in Ibiza back in '87...

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ha haa, no, by 1987, Ibiza had loast it, full of English scum... the summer of 1984, now that was some season in Ibiza

what's really new in this article?????

ronan wrote a great article. i just left berlin in early june after living there for 2 and a half years and everyone i met for the last year was moaning about minimal and how is was getting boring, too many tourists at berghain etc. a lot of producers were also talking about returning to the roots of house and combining analog machines with soft synths and avoiding the 'sterile' glitchy sound and creating a new hybrid of the two. although there are a lot of interesting german 12"s with this new sound being released- in berlin at least the only good house night i knew about was innervisions with dixon at weekend. most parties were still more techno- but dont these 12"s sound great and new....

I think thi articule is one of best articules ever, it says the real true of the movement, thats what happen right now, we need soul and feeling in our music.

damista